Hundreds of country doctors and community members have met on Yorke Peninsula to discuss the South Australian Government's planned changes affecting 43 country hospitals.

The Rural Doctors Association is urging the Federal Government to intervene in the state health plan.

Yorketown GP Geoff Tucker says any downgrading of local services would see Wallaroo struggle to cope with an increased number of patients.

Dr Tucker says many residents are worried about having to travel longer distances for their health services.

"The state of the roads are very rough from here to Wallaroo which is supposedly going to become a community hospital - 140 kilometres from here - so it's a 280-kilometre drive. It's roughly an hour-and-a-half to hour-and-three-quarter drive from here," he said.

"The daily bed average of Yorketown is 8.1 with a 30 per cent occupancy rate whereas Wallaroo's occupancy rate is 80 per cent and I think its daily bed average from memory is 15.

"They haven't got really much room to take, you know, another two-thirds of the Yorketown population into that hospital."

Dr Kirsten Buchanan, at Yorketown, says the planned changes will not relieve pressure on Adelaide hospitals.

"Consider that the country is one-third of the population and we're given one-seventh of the acute hospital budget - taking away the hospitals from the country is just going to have a huge impact on the city hospitals as well," she said.

"I mean as a doctor, if I have somebody present to me and I don't have the ability to admit them, I'm not going to be transferring them to Wallaroo, I'm going to be sending them to Adelaide."

Canberra push

Some of South Australian country doctors have gone to Canberra, where Rural Doctors Association representatives met federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon to discuss their concerns about regional health services.

The Association says SA's plan to centralise major services in four regional areas would see more than 40 community hospitals downgraded to first-aid posts.

National president Dr Peter Rischbieth says the Federal Government must stop the state plan.

""We believe the community is now understanding the implications of this plan and they are telling the Government in no uncertain terms that they need to re-look at how they're planning their health services in South Australia," he said.

"We're happy to work with the [SA] minister and the Government to develop a plan that's going to support rural health services, not cut it off at the knees."